[Willmore]

-Meche's K rate has never been this high before.

True, but we are talking about one half of a season and in 2004, he had 8.5 K/9 before the all-star break in 10 starts. And in the minors he had a 7.11 K/9 that same year.

-His FIP has never been this low before.

Somewhat true. His DIPS this year is at 4.37. And improvement over last year's 5.17 and 2004 and 2003's 4.84, but not better than his 2000 season of 4.34 DIPS. That was before his injury. Is he back to that level of performance ? Maybe. What does that mean ? He's an average to above-average pitcher.

-Meche has never before built a streak this long.

Not true. Since his May 30th start against the Rangers, when he allowed 6 ER in 5.1 innings, he has had 7 starts. Of which 6 were pretty good. In the span of the 7 starts, he pitched against the Royals, the D-backs, the Giants, the Padres and the Angels twice. Those 6 starts were against some the most inept offenses in the majors. 3 of the teams are from the NL, and they have shown during interleague play that NL teams are inferior to AL teams. So you basically had bad offensive NL teams playing against an average AL team. What do you think was supposed to happen ?

And Meche has had good and bad stretches before, just look at his pre- and post-all star game splits from year to year. 3.61 ERA before the break in 2003, 6+ ERA after. 7+ ERA before the break in 2004, 3.95 after the break.

Meche is a streaky pitcher and unless he finishes the year with a sub-4 ERA this year, he's an average pitcher in my eyes.

-His "stuff" has always been great. 7.34 K/9 for a SP is great. That's the 13th highest rank in the AL.

No, his stuff is great right now. And he has always had potential for good stuff, but has rarely shown it. Unreached potential is nothing, and until now Meche has been nothing. One can not substitute reason with hope when looking at a pitcher with potential.

-Say what you want about a contract year, the fact remains that he underwent severe shoulder surgery 4 years ago and has been suffering complications from that up through last year. This is the first season that Meche has not once been seriously hampered by health.

And isn't it convenient that his first healthy season is right before he is due to become a multi-millionaire 30 times over ? There will be a team out there that will look at a "finally healthy" 27-year old, who still has potential to become pretty good and will give him a 4-year, 40+ mil deal. It's going to happen. And Meche knows it, so when he might have complained about a sore back last year, he's going to tough it out and pitch his best right now.

Meche is a power pitcher, who gets hurt often and unlike some of the other power pitchers, he complains about it. He does not show the heart, the desire or any other mental characteristics that might signal to me, or anyone else that he has the mentality to be a good starter.

As soon as he starts to struggle, he'll have an excuse ready, you just wait and see.

-Actually watch the guy pitch. He's different and the batters are reacting different to him.

I've watched him pitch, I'm a Mariners fan, and he has pitched differently, but it's means little. He has yet to show consistency over the course of the season, see my previous points on that.

I would love for Meche to succeed, because then he might still qualify as a type A free agent, netting us a 1st rounder, but I have to see good performance from him over the course of 3-4 months, not 3-4 starts.